Understanding Parliament
Australia’s system of government
Australia, a Constitutional Monarchy, is one of the world’s most stable, egalitarian and democratic nations.
Much of this stability is owed to the unique system of Australian democracy and the function of our parliament.
Firstly, our system is a democratic system, where citizens of voting age are eligible to vote in free, open elections. This is how Australians vote in people to represent them in parliament.
Secondly, Australia has a federal system of shared responsibilities. Rather than concentrate power into the hands of one central government, the framers of the Australian Constitution divided power among the Commonwealth (Federal) Government and the individual state governments.
A third feature of Australian democracy is that our parliament is Bicameral, meaning there are two houses – the House of Representatives (the Lower House) and the Senate (Upper House). Members of the House of Representatives are elected to represent individual electorates throughout Australia. Each electorate has roughly the same number of electors to ensure each vote has equal weight.
The Senate, also known as the House of the States, elects Senators based on the state, not population. Each Australian state has 12 Senators regardless of population, while each territory has two Senators.
Having two houses also helps to provide checks and balances, with legislation (laws) having to pass through both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
As well as being elected along different boundaries, Senators and Members are also elected using different voting systems.
Members of the House of Representatives are elected using preferential voting, where preferences are distributed until some has received more than 50 per cent of the votes.
Senators are elected using proportional representation, where candidates must receive a quota of votes.
Finally, there is a separation in powers in Australia of the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary.
The Legislative arm (Parliament) is responsible for passing laws, the Executive Government (Prime Minister and Cabinet) is responsible for administering laws and the duties of government and the Judiciary (Courts) are responsible for upholding the law and settling disputes over law.
In Australia, the Judiciary is strictly separate from the other two branches, while there is a blurring of the lines between Executive and Legislative because, under the principles of responsible government, members of the Executive must be members of Parliament.
Links
To learn more about Australia’s system of government visit the following sites.
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